Crows National Recruiting Manager Hamish Ogilvie has heaped praise on the South Australian Under-18 program after the state’s back-to-back victory at the National Championships.

On Thursday the Croweaters, who only lost one match for the tournament, defeated Vic Metro at Geelong to secure their second Under-18 Championship title in as many years. This followed the State’s 2013 win – its first in 18 years.

The 2014 team isn’t as star studded as last year’s crop, which produced seven players taken in the top 35 of the AFL National Draft and two in the top 10 – Matthew Scharenberg (Collingwood) and James Aish (Brisbane Lions). But Ogilvie said SA had benefited from excellent coaching, led by long-time mentor Brenton Phillips and a team-first approach to the Championships.

“South Australia managed their group really well and got a terrific result. They played real team footy. It was a combination of the program, their training and the way the coach (Brenton Phillips) organised them.

“They’ve got a great system in place and the results over the past two years speak for themselves. They probably weren't the most talented team, but they were the best team."

Ogilvie identified exposure to senior football as another factor in SA’s impressive win.

“Some of the Victorian kids come straight out of school footy into Nationals and the jump is really big. But a number of the SA boys have played some senior and reserves SANFL footy, which really held them in good stead,” Ogilvie said.

“Boys like Jake Johansen, Caleb Daniel, Billy Stretch and Dean Gore to an extent have come out of senior footy environments and that’s great preparation. They also had a strong and deep group of competitive midfielders, which was important as the series wore on.”

North Adelaide’s Harrison Wigg was named SA’s Most Valuable Player of the series.

The 2014 Under-18 National Championships were held in a different format to previous years.

This year’s Championships saw four division one teams – Victoria Country, Victoria Metro, South Australia and Western Australia – feature in a six-round home-and-away fixture. It was a switch from the structure of previous seasons, which had been a five-round series with cross-division games. The new format also allowed more players to represent their state, with AFL rules forcing division one teams to play a minimum of 32 players from their squads with a minimum of two games each.

Ogilvie viewed the new format as a success.

“I like the format with home and away games. We get to see the kids over a longer period and in more games,” he said.

“Not everyone is going to play really well in a six-game series, but if someone does it’s a big tick to them. A lot of players have been up and down throughout the carnival, which probably doesn’t clear things up much. Maybe, it makes it more difficult, but it gives us a big enough look at players in the middle of the year.

“The players were sore and tired towards the end, so you get to see a bit of resilience from them. Playing 32 players across the carnival allowed us to see a good range of players and to compare them. It also gave us a chance to see more of the bottom-age players. I like to see some of those 17-year-olds a year early because it helps us to predict what the next year is going to be like.”